Where Does Work Really Happen?

Oct

Where does work really happen? Jason Fried has asked himself that question and discovered something quite radical. Despite the strong investment in office space and office amenities, work doesn’t happen at work at all.

The myth of multitasking has long been debunked, and the notion of working at one thing at a time is gaining importance. Fried compares working to sleeping; an action that needs to follow a process in order to be deemed satisfactorily completed. In order to achieve a full night’s rest, one has to complete the cycle, and all interruptions cause the cycle to restart itself. Work works the same way, especially for the “thinking jobs”. In order to work, one needs to let the thought processes take over in order to really ‘think’.

“[Facebook and Twitter] aren’t the real problems in the office. The real problems are what I like to call the M&Ms, the Managers and the Meetings.”

According to Fried, the main problems for office distractions are M&M’s (Managers and Meetings). Although it’s the manager’s job to check up on the employee’s performance, doing too much of it renders everyone’s productivity inefficient. Meetings is the other culprit. Meetings usually call for too many people and run for longer than they should.

The solutions Fried offers:

1. Cancel the next meeting, if you are in a position to do so.

2. Have less meetings or quick ones with only the relevant people.

3. Encourage the use of instant messaging and emailing because the person can choose when he is interrupted.

3 Comments

Trevor

October 13, 2014 at 4:36 pm

[…] a whole different idea about work. If you want a recap on the video, you might want to go to the “Where does work really happen?” […]

Trevor

October 21, 2014 at 1:30 pm

[…] 5. Stop signing every check. Designate a specific day and time for certain tasks, such as signing checks. Productivity works best when there are no interruptions. Instead of allowing a steady, unpredictable flow of interruptions, schedule these tasks for specific blocks of time to limit interruptions. Also check out why Jason Fried says that “work doesn’t happen at work“. […]

Trevor

October 30, 2014 at 1:48 pm

Sometimes it is important to go back to the grass roots of what made you and your company successful in the first place!